Regeneration

When London won the bid to host the 2012 Games, the scale of the challenge faced by the ODA was huge: to transform a deprived and derelict area of east London into an Olympic Park.

However, this challenge also presented a unique opportunity to regenerate an area, previously suffering from years of neglect and under-investment. Pockets of industrial land were disconnected from their surrounding areas by the many waterways that criss-cross the site.

In 2006, the ODA published two revised Olympic Park Masterplans – Games-time and a legacy transformation. These built on the Masterplans set out in the Bid Book, and finalised details such as venue locations.

The Masterplans were not just developed as planning documents, but were used as tools by the many designers, contractors and operators working on the Park. By agreeing the final Masterplan at that early stage of the project, the ability to bear down on potential cost increases and to make future cost savings was significantly increased.

The ODA submitted one of the largest planning applications in European history in February 2007; a 10,000-page document split into 15 volumes, outlining the delivery of the venues and infrastructure for the London 2012 Games.

The application covered a land area of 2.5sq km and set the vision for one of the largest urban parks to be built in Europe for more than 150 years.